Once again world iron ore prices have dominated what was another grim week for commodities, with grains, gold, silver and oil performing weakly and hitting new lows (multi-month or years).
The spot price for iron ore (62% Fe) delivered into northern China hit yet another record low on Friday night, our time, ending at $US81.70 a tonne (around $A91).
That was after the spurt on Monday to $US85.20, which was a gain of more than 4% from the previous Thursday.
That means the price fell more than 4% last week, including Friday’s 1.6% drop more than reversing Monday’s jump.
The strengthening US dollar is having a small impact, but the bigger influences remain the weak state of demand for steel in China and a reluctance of mills to start restocking.
The price in Shanghai of rebar, or reinforcing bar, the key steel product futures contract, hit another record low on Friday, which seems to have had an immediate impact on the iron ore price.
Meanwhile, Brent crude oil in rose 0.6% on Friday in London to $US98.27 a barrel while US crude futures in New York fell half a per cent to $US92.60.
For the week Brent oil was up 0.2% and Nymex crude in New York was up 0.4%.
Oil prices struggled all week with growing supplies as US oil production rises, and falling demand.
The International Energy Agency, the US Energy Information Administration and the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have all lowered their forecasts for demand global growth this month.
Meanwhile gold futures fell to an eight-month low and sllver dropped under $US18 an ounce to the lowest in four years.
Gold’s weakness on Friday helped the metal to record its third weekly loss in a row. For the week it shed 1.2%.
Comex gold futures for December delivery in New York ended at $US1,216.60 an ounce, after the price had earlier touched $US1,214.20, the lowest for a most-active contract since early last January.
Comex September silver lost 67c, falling to $US17.78 an ounce (the lowest since July 2010, according to Bloomberg data), before ending down 3.6% at $US17.844 an ounce.
Comex copper fell 0.1% to $US3.09 a pound to be flat on the previous week.
And Chicago Board of Trade Wheat futures for December delivery lost nearly 3% to end at $US4.745 a bushel.
Earlier the price touched $4.7375, the lowest for a most-active contract since June 30, 2010.
The grain fell 5.6% and is now down 16% so far in September.
Corn futures for delivery in December dropped 2% to $US3.315 a bushel, the lowest since June 30, 2010. The grain fell for the fifth straight week and is down 21% this year.
And soybean futures for November delivery fell 1.5% to $US9.57 a bushel.
The price fell to $US9.56 at one stage, the lowest since July 2010. It was the 6th straight weekly fall.
A rare positive for commodities at the moment has been cocoa which has been boosted by the terrible ebola breakout in the key growing countries of West Africa.
Cocoa futures jumped 5.6% this week in London and 6.7% in New York, the biggest rises in 13 months.
On Friday, cocoa futures for December delivery rose 1.9% to settle at 2,105 pounds ($US3,434) a tonne and, according to Bloomberg, that was the highest for a most-active contract since March 29, 2011
In New York, cocoa for December delivery on the ICE exchange rose 2.1% to $US3,259 a tonne after touching $US3,273, the highest since late August.
